In a common photographic process, a series of photographic prints are taken with a camera and the exposed film is sent to a photographic laboratory where the film is developed. In the developing process, the exposed film is transferred in darkness into a developing solution, which causes any affected grain of the latent image to be wholly converted into silver. After a brief rinse in a stop bath of acid or water to remove developer and to stop development, the film is fixed in a solution of sodium thiosulfate or in a more rapid fixing solution. These solutions dissolve and remove the unchanged silver salts, thus rendering the film insensitive to light. The film is then washed and dried. Each picture is now a transparent negative in which light parts of the object are represented by dark areas and dark parts by light areas.
A large negative can be used to make a contact print, but small negatives are usually placed in an enlarger in which light from a lamp throws an enlarged and accurately focused image onto a piece of printing paper that has been coated with an emulsion similar to that on the film but less sensitive to light. The paper is then developed and fixed to form a positive print. The developed photographic prints are then provided to the photographer.
Although the photographic process of developing and distributing photographic prints has proven satisfactory, further improvements in the field of processing and distributing photographic film are desired. An object of the present invention is to provide a method of processing digital images of at least one photographic image and distributing visual prints produced from the digital images. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method of processing digital images of at least one photographic image and distributing visual prints through the use of an interface such as an HTML interface, client interface, or received via a telephone operator or printed order. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method of processing digital images of at least one photographic image and distributing visual prints that is economical and easily accessible through a secure network.